Fresh and healthy

All about allium

In the deciduous forests of the Murau wetlands in the Thermen- & Vulkanland, a garlicky scent wafts through the air from March until May. Wild garlic is on the loose – and everyone is in a culinary stir!

The birds try to outdo one another in song. One tender green stalk shoots up after another, poking up through the leaf litter on the forest floor. Soon it makes its presence felt with its potent aroma: wild garlic has arrived!

It will soon carpet the forest floor in a pale green swathe. Walkers and cyclists, locals and visitors pluck the green treasures to make delicious dishes at home, such as cream of wild garlic soup or wild garlic gnocchi. Emerging from winter, the body hankers for a burst of fresh vitamins from nature. Wild garlic offers a range of health-promoting effects. It reduces blood pressure, stimulates circulation and digestion, and supplies the body with vitamin C, iron, calcium and other minerals.

For those who want to track down some wild garlic on a hike (by the way: it also tastes wonderful in “exotic” dishes such as a dim-sum filling or a risottino with saddle of lamb), a trip to the Murau floodplains is not to be missed. The Murau habitat is a fascinating type of forest, like stepping into a different world. Although the River Mur has been levelled and deepened, and the embankments rarely overflow, there are still remnants of the old floodplains that used to flood regularly: all this in addition to the different water courses and rivulets, the jungle-like thickets of poplars, European oak and acacia, and the hops, clematis and ivy.

Cream of wild garlic soup with horseradish foam

Ingredients: for 4 persons
60 g wild garlic
80 ml stock
salt, pepper, bay leaf
40 g butter
20 ml milk
30 g cake flour
Horseradish

Preparation:
Sweat the flour in the butter, add the washed, chopped wild garlic, and pour in the stock. Season and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Blend the soup, serve in deep bowls, and garnish with horseradish foam.

Horseradish foam: Boil the milk and grated horseradish, foam up using a hand-held blender, and spoon the foam onto the soup.

Did you know that...

the German word “Bärlauch” (wild garlic) comes from “Bärenlauch” (bear garlic)? The story goes that bears would gorge on spicy wild garlic after emerging from hibernation.

there’s a certain risk of mixing wild garlic up with lily of the valley or meadow saffron? The test is to tear off a leaf. Wild garlic will smell very much like garlic!